Solution Manual For Interpersonal Skills in Organizations 2025 Release Suzanne de Janasz, Karen O. Dowd and Beth Schneider Chapters 1-19
Chapter One Journey into Self-awareness Chapter Overview A central thesis of our book is that managers must first understand themselves in order to be effective in working with others. In this chapter we introduce the concept of self-awareness: what it is, why it's important, benefits of self-awareness and means to gain self-awareness. We discuss ways to build selfawareness and strategies for being effective at identifying strengths and overcoming limitations. We also address how strong self-knowledge can enhance one‘s ability to manage others. The chapter begins with a case and discussion questions and concludes with a number of exercises that can be used in groups or as individual assignments.
Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, the student/reader will be able to:
List strengths and understand how these might enhance their career readiness -- guiding them to or confirming an academic major, career path or career advancement opportunity. Identify personal motivators that define personal and professional happiness. Assess personal limitations and develop a plan for improving in these areas. Identify preferred work style and how this affects working relationships with others. Identify personal biases that might hinder understanding and appreciation of diverse others.
Chapter Outline What is Self-awareness? The extent to which people are consciously aware of their internal states as well as their interactions or relationships with others. The capacity for introspection and the ability to reconcile oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals. Knowing your motivations, preferences and personality and understanding how these affect judgment, decisions and interactions with others.
Why Self-awareness is important
Understanding yourself in relation to others Building confidence, esteem, and resilience Developing and implementing a sound self-improvement program Setting meaningful life and career goals Developing relationships with others
Understanding the value of diversity Managing others effectively, in-person and remotely Increasing productivity Increasing ability to contribute to organization, community and family Developing a career that is satisfying Increasing global leadership competencies Creating trusting and productive work environments Supporting others in their development Enhanced emotional intelligence Increased personal authenticity Processing challenging life events Managing change
Lack of Self-awareness It is also important to assess the negative effects of a lack of, or faulty, self-awareness. These can include:
Making poor decisions Developing unrealistic notions of your competencies and strengths Derailing your career
Strategies for gaining Self-awareness Self-analysis – analyzing and reflecting on behaviors, personality, attitudes and perceptions. Behavior – the way in which we conduct ourselves or act.
Four components: Motivation – the drive to pursue one action over another. Modes of thinking – the way you process inputs and external stimuli. Modes of acting – the course of action you apply in a given situation. Modes of interacting – the way in which you communicate and share ideas, opinions and feelings with others.
Personality – the relatively stable set of characteristics, tendencies and temperaments that have been inherited or formed by heredity and by social, cultural and environmental factors.
Big Five Model – five broad personality factors that are representative of the characteristics that can be linked with satisfaction and success. o Extroversion – the degree to which a person is social or outgoing. o Agreeableness – the degree to which a person is friendly or reserved, cooperative or guarded. o Emotional Stability – the degree of consistency or inconsistency in reacting to certain events or situations. o Conscientiousness – the degree to which an individual is dependable, reliable, or committed. o Openness to Experience – the degree to which one is interested in broadening horizons, open to new ideas, people, or situations.
Self-Monitoring – the ability to regulate your thinking before speaking or acting. The tendency to adjust behavior relative to the changing demands of social situations, dangerous at either end of the continuum.
High Self-monitors – sensitive to external cues and constantly adapt or conform to situations or a set of expectations. Low Self-monitors – display feelings, attitudes, and behaviors in every situation. Never adjusting or conforming to situations, not interested in what others think.
Attitudes – are settled ways of thinking about someone or something, reflected in a person‘s behavior. The emotions we choose to act on determine our attitude. Perception – the process by which individuals select, evaluate, and organize information to make sense of it. One‘s perception is not necessarily reality, it is an individual's view of reality. Factors that affect perception:
Stereotyping – making assumptions about individuals or a group based on generalized judgments rather than facts. Selective Perception – interpreting information for meaning and accuracy and discarding that which is threatening or non-relevant. Projection – the attributing of one‘s own attitudes, characteristics or shortcomings to others. Expectations – forming an opinion about how we would like an event or situation to develop or a person to act, feel or think. Interest – basing our activities and inputs on things that are likeable or appealing to us.
Unconscious Bias – making instant assessments of an individual or group based on things like ethnicity, race, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, body weight, cognitive ability, political beliefs, educational level, family background, or economic or class status, etc. Attribution Theory – developing perceptions based on whether we believe the perceived causes which result in specific behavior in others or ourselves are internal or external.
Self-serving Bias – individuals tend to blame external factors for failure and credit internal factors for success when evaluating themselves. Fundamental Attribution Error – individuals tend to overestimate the impact of internal factors and underestimate external factors when evaluating others.
Others’ Perceptions – gaining self-awareness through understanding how others view us and understanding how we are shaped by other‘s opinions.
Social Mirror – a process of viewing ourselves based on other people‘s views.
Self-Disclosure – gaining awareness through sharing ideas, thoughts and feelings with others without self-deception or distortion. Diverse Experiences – increasing self-awareness through acquiring multiple experiences in diverse situations and with diverse others.
Teaching Notes Motivating the discussion:
At the start of the session, ask students, "How many of you could easily describe your best friend's strengths, weaknesses, style, etc.?" (Probably most could.) Then ask, "How many of you could do the same for yourselves? How well do you know yourselves? What you like, what you hate, what you're good at, etc." As a follow-on probe, ask students to consider how others would view their personal strengths and weaknesses; how would others view them? Our best friend? A parent? A teacher?
"Why is self-awareness important?" First, in order to be effective interpersonally (with others), you need to be effective intrapersonally—comfortable with yourself and able to understand yourself and how you interact with others. How can you interact well with others if you don't know yourself? You need to know what your work style is and how you relate to others, both personally and professionally, in order to be able to work with and manage others. You might think others see you as warm, open and easy to talk to, yet others might have a different impression of you. You might think coworkers and superiors see you as a competent and capable manager. Yet promotions seem to go to others. Second, understanding and monitoring your strengths and skills over time is critical to being considered a "valuable commodity" in the workplace. As technology and competition evolve, so too does the need for new and different skills. Self-awareness enables you to stay marketable by understanding your strengths and keeping your skills current.
Knowing yourself has lifelong consequences as well. Why live sub-optimally? By knowing what makes you tick, you can work toward and select a career that suits you best, allowing you to achieve greater satisfaction and happiness in your professional work, and by extension, your personal life!
The best managers are those who understand their strengths and limitations and know how to complement these with the skills and qualities of others in the workplace. They undertake a "continuous improvement" approach to self-development. One suggestion is to take a selfassessment test or class at least once per year. It's a great way to demonstrate willingness to grow, learn and change.
Emphasize the importance of self-improvement. Some qualities are innate. But many qualities can be fostered or enhanced if we are committed to doing so. Change takes time, commitment, and personal change work on yourself, but it can be done.
Acknowledge that some may be less comfortable with self-awareness than others. Those who are naturally more reserved will be less inclined at the outset to share about themselves personally. This is OK; remind them that many CEOs are introverts! But self-awareness is important because those who are able to relate personally to others and who can appreciate their own and others' strengths and weaknesses are more effective in business, and in life.
Ideas for presenting material:
Self-awareness is an important tool in students‘ and managers‘ career toolkits. Ask participants how self-awareness of one‘s strengths and interests can be used to identify career paths and options that
are particularly suited to them. Encourage students to visit their campus career center (online or in person) and employees to visit their employee resource center for information and resources that may be useful in helping them to explore particular career or career advancement options. Ask them to bring in information about resources that were particularly interesting or helpful to share with fellow students or employees.
Discuss the connection between self-awareness and career readiness. Ask participants about some of the jobs (summer, part- or full-time, self-employment, etc.) they‘ve held. Which ones suited them and why? Which ones did they dislike and why? What strengths did they find they have? What skills did they develop? What ideas did these jobs give them about the type of work they want to do in the future? About the type of organization in which they want to work? About the type of people with whom they want to work? About what they‘re interested in and what‘s important to them? About career/life goals they want to pursue? About how they want to make an impact and make a contribution?
Another approach is to ask participants to complete one or more personality-type assessments (from the chapter, exercises, or others available on the Internet) and then try to make sense of their findings. Do the results resonate with them? Why or why not? Ask what they learned about themselves from the assessments. Which career options were mentioned that might fit their personality and interests? How can their strengths and interests be used to identify potential career or career advancement options? When using any self-assessment test with individuals or in groups, acknowledge that they won't always agree with the results, nor should they. Any S/A test is simply a way to use words to describe similarities and differences. We're all unique. None of us like to be labeled. If we don't agree with a result, we can ask, ―Is there anything here that might be true?‖ And if not, then what other answer or result would we prefer? Even a "wrong" answer can be a good source of learning. There is no one ―right‖ solution that fits everyone. Keep trying until they find an assessment that resonates with their experience and preferences. Examples of assessments (listed in the book) are The Big Five, Myers-Briggs, Insights, DISC, Strengths Finder, Keirsey, CareerLeader, Holland Code and Career Anchors. Participants can research and bring other options to class and share with each other.
Discuss how self-awareness can help with resume building (e.g. identify core strengths, list an objective, emphasize unique talents and qualities that are pertinent to what employers or graduate schools seek), and with interviewing (focus on key skills and experiences that have shaped them into who they are today and who they aspire to be). In class, participants can critique each other‘s resumes or conduct mock interviews, offering feedback to each other on what‘s working and what can be improved.
Discussion Questions Why is self-awareness so important?
Understanding yourself in relation to others Developing and implementing a sound self-improvement program Setting meaningful life and career goals Developing relationships with others Understanding differences